The Bank
of London opened a branch in Montevideo in 1863, and in
1865 Montevideo Waterworks was set up by a British company
to provide a source of clean drinking water, encouraging
more British settlement and investment. Thousands of
comparatively affluent Brazilian troops passing through
Montevideo during the Paraguayan war
[5] brought about a
large injection of cash into the economy. The first
railways were also built at this time. In 1876, during a
period of political stability and prosperity, Uruguay
purchased English railway equipment and a further influx
of British immigrants took place. The employees of these
enterprises all gravitated towards the sports clubs
already in existence or founded their own along similar
lines. Names of football clubs such as the Carmelo
Wanderers are evidence of the direct influence of the
ingleses in their foundation. President Pedro Varela
in 1875, noted for his progressive and egalitarian
education policies, remarked that he felt like the manager
of a great estancia, the owner of which lived in
London. Indeed the impact of the British community would
in less than two decades manifest itself in the highest
echelons of political power, when in 1894 a
Scottish-Argentine, Duncan Stewart was appointed interim
President.

A cricket
match against Buenos Aires Cricket Club, scheduled for
1864, was postponed until 1868. The first international
competition of its kind in South America was delayed various
significant events: the Cruzada Libertadora of Venancio
Flores; the
overthrow of the Blanco government; the massacres at
Paysandú; the war against Paraguay; the assassination of
Flores; the subsequent assassination of Berro; and a
massive outbreak of cholera on both sides of the River
Plate.

From 1863
to 1865, Flores, with troops from Brazil and Argentina,
raised a revolt against Berro and the Blancos and ravaged
the country north of the Río Negro. He was responsible for
the massacre of the citizens of Paysandú and the
destruction of their town. He wrested power from the
Blancos and began to roll back the reforms instigated by
Berro. In this he was supported by the Catholic Church and
conservative elements in society and in the military. He
involved Uruguay with Brazil and Argentina in a war
against Paraguay that resulted in the devastation of that
country.

On 19
February 1965, during a heatwave and with an outbreak of
cholera in the city, Berro, regarded as a man of peace and
reconciliation, staged a coup, beginning with the
assassination of Flores and seizure of the government
buildings. The young son of Flores came to do reverence to
the decapitated body of his father. Tearfully he embraced
his former mentor and friend, Bernardo Berro, drew a
pistol from his coat and shot him dead.
There
followed a reign of terror, partly precipitated by an
English telegraph operator in the new Proudfoot Telegraph
Company, who confused‘vénganse’ (come!) with
‘vénguense’ (take revenge!), in a message to military
commanders.
The episode exhibited to perfection all the elements of
Shakespearian tragedy, especially the dramatic unities of
time and place. The heatwave abated. The executions
petered out and play was resumed. In calmer times both
clubs played the first international rugby match in the
region in 1874.

Montevideo Cricket Club

The first
football match in Uruguay was played between a team from
MVCC and a team from a visiting British ship in 1878. The
story of the expansion of Association Football in South
America is well known. The game of rugby was eclipsed by
the increasing passion for fútbol.

English
cricket clubs were the incubators of rugby’s development
in the River Plate region (Richards 2007:54). Rugby later
gained a firm foothold in the clubs established by the
English schools during the 1870s and 1880s. Significantly,
these schools also enrolled Uruguayans and Argentineans,
integrating the colleges and their sports into the
mainstream of Uruguayan and Argentinean life and leading
to the formation of clubs throughout both countries. The
game advanced rapidly in Argentina and in 1899 the River
Plate Rugby Football Union was formed, later to be Unión
Argentina de Rugby (UAR). However, the club had to wait
until 1987 to be affiliated to the international board (IRB),
when they were invited to compete in the inaugural World
Cup. ‘Rugby criollo’ was introduced in 1949 at the
Carrasco Polo Club (Richards 2007: 164). Uruguay did not
form its own union until 1951. Appropriately the first
president of the union was Carlos E. Cat, a leading figure
in Montevideo Cricket Club, who had played rugby for San
Isidro Club in Argentina. There would also appear to be an
Irish link with the foundation of the Uruguay Rugby Union,
as its first honorary secretary was a Mr D McCormack. The
game is constituted on an amateur basis in both countries.

Irish
Involvement

Two events
of significance occurred in Montevideo in May 1955.
Firstly, the last tram of the crumbling British transport
system rattled along the route from central Montevideo to
Punta Carretas, a suburb on the coast. Britain had amassed
large debts to Uruguay for the supply of foodstuffs during
the Second World War and arguably, a debt of honour for
its assistance in the destruction of the German warship
AdmiralGraf Spee at the outbreak of
hostilities. Drained by the cost of the war, Britain, in
the grip of rationing, harsh winters, poor harvests and
facing the imminent loss of its Empire, could not or would
not pay the debt. Instead, British interests were
persuaded to sign over ownership of the rattle-trap,
ill-maintained transport infrastructure to the Uruguayan
state. Most of the system was decommissioned forthwith.
This was perhaps a shrewd deal for Britain, but definitely
not for cricket! [6] Secondly, a small group of Irish
Christian Brothers opened a school at Carrasco, a leafy
suburb on the outskirts of the city. This school, Stella Maris, was to attract worldwide attention in 1972,
following the crash of Flight F-227 of the Uruguayan Air
Force, high in the Andes.

The Irish
Christian Brothers, colloquially known as ‘the Brothers’,
were founded in County Waterford, Ireland, by Edmund
Ignatius Rice, a devout Roman Catholic and philanthropic
businessman in that city. He opened his first school for
the education of poor boys in a stable in Waterford in
1802 with the support of the local Roman Catholic bishop
Thomas Hussey. Using his own money to provide food,
clothing and books for the students and the teachers who
came to join him in his work, and having overcome many
difficulties, the order of the Irish Christian Brothers
was finally sanctioned by Rome in 1821. It was designated
as a religious congregation of men, as opposed to ordained
clergy. By this time they had founded schools in many
parts of the country, under the patronage of local bishops
(Cullen & O’ Toole 1979).